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User blog:Gorvar/Gorvar Reviews: Dragon Age Franchise. Part 1: Foreword and Journeys.
Hello everyone! Today it’s nearly April, and you know what that means?! Probably maybe because I told you in the previous post, It’s Dragon Age month! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Dragon_Age_logo.jpg I love this franchise. It has a good premise and takes the fantasy genre towards the much needed dark corners Tolkien never really wanted to investigate. It throws the Man/elf/dwarf stereotypes into a new light and take it somewhere new and exciting. Dwarves in caste systems, gypsy elves and other elves serving humans as slaves? Mages locked up in towers because they are deemed to dangerous to walk around? That’s just a handful of surprises. Dragon Age is a dark fantasy RPG game made by Bioware (the guys who did Knights of the old Republic, Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights) which was meant to be the spiritual successor of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, losing the D&D campaign setting and creating their own universe. As proven with Mass Effect, Bioware does succeed in creating their own deep universe with awesome races, interesting characters and deep villains. The franchise takes place on the continent called Thedas, with most of the action going on in the nation of Ferelden. But Gorvar, you ask, why is this game called ‘Dragon Age’? Where are the Dragons in Dragon Age, this game sucks! Well my good friends, the reason why it’s called ‘Dragon Age’ is because the era the game takes place in is called ‘The Dragon Age’, an age where Dragons seems to pop up more then in the previous age, and each age lasts about an hundred years. Ferelden is a kingdom ruled by the Theirin family who only recently in the franchise managed to shake free of being controlled by Orlesian Empire. Ferelden is based loosely as a Medieval Britain, with the human characters all being portrayed by English voice actors and the occupation by Orlais being very similar to England’s own occupation by the Norman William the Conqueror, a French speaking Norman back in the 1200’s. There are other nations out there, like the mentioned French/Norman Orlais, the Spanish Antiva, and the Holy Roman Empire/Anderfels, but right now let’s stick with Ferelden. There are also Elves, Dwarves and Mages, but we’ll get into them with each game and their own backstory. The franchise is based around a ancient order called ‘The Grey Wardens’ who could be considered Jedi but on steroids. They are men, elves and dwarves who united 1200 years ago to combat creatures that are called ‘Darkspawn’. The Darkspawn are evil creatures that inhabit the tunnels created by (and then taken from) the dwarven empires and occasionally spill out to the surface in what is called ‘a Blight’ in the thousands to, you guessed it, take over the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8u7px_GzWQ You remember the hordes of Saruman unleashed on Helms Deep? Imagine that but times a hundred and your getting a slight idea of how many there are in a Blight. A Blight could be considered a crusade of sorts to conquer all of the surface world and every man, woman and child has to die because of it. During these Blights they are led by an Arch Demon, a ancient dragon turned corrupted by the blight the darkspawn have around them, a corruption that even twists flaura and fauna. The Grey Wardens are in small number, but their status as BAMF’s (Bad Ass Mother Fuckers to those who do not speaking the testosterone lingo) allows them to take on entire legions of darkspawn b themselves. Because they are the only real experts In handling Blights they are allowed to lead the other nations’s armies when a Blight pops up and needs taken out. A Blight only ends when the Archdemon dies and could last on for decades. Because of their ‘going to kick ass and take names’ attitude many aspire to join the mysterious Order, who probably have nothing to do but play cards and charades until a Blight pops up. With all of that out of the way, let’s get into Dragon Age Journeys. imghttp://www.gameguru.in/images/dragon-age-journeys-01.jpg[/img] Dragon Age Journeys is a flash game released back in 2009 by Ea-2D as a appetizer of sorts for the main game that would come out later that year. In fact whenever you completed a Questline in Journeys, it would unlock a reward for Origins such as a belt or a helmet. However since June 30, 2010 the items you unlock are no longer available to be won and used for Origins. Just like Origins, Journeys likes to work with the Origins and gives the same options. You can pick between a Human Noble, a Human/Elf Mage, a Dwarf Noble, A Dwarf Commoner, an City Elf (slaves to humans) and Dalish elves (the free elves who refuse to bow to human law). You can pick both genders, customise how they look like, give them a name and of course their class. Warriors, Rogues and Mages. Note there are restrictions like dwarves cannot be mages. Which is of course lame since we all know Hadhod was the best dwarven spellcaster in fiction ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImyaH8QQAII Origins means that you, the player, can pick your race and background as a way of how the game will start and will perceive you. For example a Dwarf Noble will receive more respect then a servant City Elf and a Mage will be taken cautiously in the fear of being turned into a newt. While Dragon Age: Origins goes into a lot more depth for your Origins, it is a nice little bit for Journeys since you start off different in each Origin. When you picked your race and class the game starts, and will mostly take place in, the Deep Roads. The Deep Roads are the tunnels that once connected the underground cities (called Thaigs) of the Dwarven Empire but are now taken over by the darkspawn. So yes, the entire game is a sewer level and as we all know, the sewer level always suck. You can say it’s dungeon crawling at it’s finest, but hey I’m just being my good old Misanthropic self here. Each race/class has a different reason for being down in the Deep Roads, but all turn out the same. While your character goes off to kill a Genlock Darkspawn, your friends gets attacked by a Ogre, a massive Darkspawn, and his master, a spellcaster Darkspawn called a emissary. The Emissary is different then the others however as it is able to speak fluently and glows brightly blue. Hmmm....what does that remind me of... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyC6mrUr1E&feature=related Anyway, he and his pet kill your friends and forces you to haul ass back/to Orzammar, one of the last few dwarven cities left. You collapse in front of the city gates with the guards blinking at your sudden arrival and half insane cries of fear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5kPUFxXYLs Anyway when you come to, the commander of the dwarves tells you a mage called Ardum saved you from your wounds. Your character tells the commander about the talking emissary, but of course they think your still shocked shitless and you are dreaming. It’s rather hilarious since if you pick a dwarven noble you could have this guy fired and kicked out of Orzammar. Anyway he tells you he cant help because the big wigs at the Orzamar Assembly are planning a massive expedition to reclaim one of the Thaigs. However he tells you to go look for Ardum the spirit healer (your healer for this game) and go find the Grey Warden Martine who’s gone missing recently with a patrol of dwarves. You and Ardum go off on wild adventures and try to find Martine. After a EPIC search of...five minutes I think, you find her. Of course she is surrounded by Darkspawn and you have to save her. After you helped her kill the darkspawn you tell her of the emissary. The party, which is later joined by the Bard Ryanth, decide to go after this Emisary and follow him through the decrepit holes of the Deep Roads. For Great Justice! It’s a proper short plot and the game only lasts 6 hours. And to be fair for a free game, it’s pretty good. The only problem is this was supposed to be Part 1 of a three part episode and thus ending on a cliffhanger. But it hasn’t been updated for nearly 2 years despite the Twitters and the other flash game that recently came out on Facebook. So don’t expect Part 2 any time soon. Since this game was intended as a appetizer for Origins, a lot of the gameplay does reflect Origins very well. Most of the Music/Sounds and even spells come from DA:O as is the option to change weapon styles. The levelling up and talent points work exactly the same as well in Origins. The only difference there is with Origins is this being a Tactical RPG. You move the characters on a Hexagon-battlefield and fight each other in turns. The turns each character takes depends on speed and what attack you used the turn before. It’s a satisfying game and although not as deep as Origins, it wasn’t really intended to be. You do not connect with your companions due to the lack of interaction save for milestone conversations during the plot, and no matter what action you take they’ll follow you through to it with little to no repercussion. Repercussions and consequences are not to be found in this game, your not really been given any choices In this game. The plot moves along on a very straight path and even if you try your best to get away from the plot by not following the rules of your Q-giver, your still going to be lured in regardless to continue the game. You could argue that for a free game you shouldn’t expect to much, but in that case they shouldn’t have put those options to tick off your Q-giver and try to find another way in the 1st place. Also the lack of having 4 party members but 3, including yourself, does suck. When the bard enters in the game, you’ll be forced to leave either your Healer Mage or Your Grey Warden Tank/DPS behind. Ryanth is a good marksmen and his bard songs really do wonders for your party, but with the lack of a healer or a proper Tank it would really fall on your player character to do most of the ass kicking. The lack of random battles is annoying. Because of the linear gameplay, if you killed a pack of darkspawn or other bad guys, you cant fight them again and that can cause problems if you want to level up more before your fight with the Emissary. Not that the fight is to difficult, but your going to have to play like a boss and know how your party members work and what skills are best for the job. I already talked about the lack of real variety In scenery since all of the game takes place in the Deep Roads and Orzammar, but if you’re a big fan of dungeon crawling and gathering loot from treasure caches, Journeys will be a good snack for you, even if you don’t get any of the items anymore for Origins. And because I’m a nice guy, here is the link down below so you can play it for yourself. Trust me, it’s worth it if you have an hour or so to kill. http://www.dragonagejourneys.com/ And speaking of snacks, this game is indeed it. Join me next time as we dive into Dragon Age: Origins, the game that some consider one of the best RPG’s ever. Category:Blog posts